Parents Visit Revisted..(the first few days)

Lets travel back in time.. to my parents visit two months ago. I keep saying I will recap their visit and just have not made the time to do so. Now that I am in a writing groove I'm going to try and keep the ball rolling with an update of their visit! Whoo hoo. Plus it's like I get to relive it again!

We are a bit out of order but I'm positive no one is going to mind. The day they arrived they got in around 3:30 pm, putting us at our apartment with two tired travelers close to five. I fixed an easy meal of beef bowls and then we tried to keep them awake to kick the jet lag.

The following day we headed into Sannomiya, a giant city center, to shop, look around, and pretty much not do any crazy sightseeing on their first day. We went to a rooftop nursery. I introduced my dad to the bakeries and his favorite, cheese bread, and then we decided to go catch the Buffaloes game at the outdoor stadium. On our way to the field we stopped at another shopping area where my parents delighted in some crepes. Then they experienced their first Japanese baseball game.

 

The following day we were greeted with rain. I had not planned ANY activities for rain and had no idea what we could do. My dad, Ken, found a couple sake breweries not to far from our apartment so we headed out to those. It was a wet nightmare but after my dad stopped and got directions, with my assistance, we set out to find the brewery. If you've seen one you've seen them all but it was neat to see just how it used to be made.

 

 

Then the days start to mix together so it gets confusing. We went to have a Japanese dinner one evening at a Yakiniku. There is a grill built into the table and you order your meat choices or vegetables and cook them yourself. At this particular restaurant it is timed and you can eat all you can in 90 minutes. At this point, I don't believe we had shared the news that they would be grandparents. I was super nervous that the raw meat sitting in front of me was going to make me sick, but I enjoyed the entire meal with no problems. I even had tongue for the first time and it was pretty good.

 

 

The first few days allowed them to get a feel for traveling by train and the general idea of our life here in Japan. Our first all day excursion was to Awaji island which you can read about here and then we will be ready to move on to the next big travel days of Hiroshima, Kyoto and around Kobe.

 

But first...a special video. We decided to tell my parents the night before Mother's Day because Brandon was busy all day that Sunday and wouldn't be around. A little back story behind the gift. There was some sort of pop up sale  in our building that had all sorts of Japanese goods. My mom spotted this really pretty lazy susan she wanted but didn't buy it. When she told me about it, I told her not to get it because it would be to hard to get home. The next morning we walked right past the sale again, she had a massage, and it was still there, which is when I got the bright idea to buy it and use that to surprise her with our news. While she was getting her massage I hurried, bought the plate and got it back to the apartment, hid a special surprise inside, and kept it until after our dinner pictured above. She thought she was just getting her lazy susan but ended up with so much more! I love that Brandon captured her reaction because they are the only two people we got to tell live in person.